Making You Look as Good as Possible!

A friend of mine had been playing around with the idea of writing a book of his life experiences living in various parts of Asia in the 1980's and 90's.

He came to me with some notes and asked "What exactly does an editor DO?"

Of course, there are plenty of excellent definitions — most of them quite long winded — of what book and manuscript editors do.

But that wasn't the sort of answer he was looking for.

Eventually, the "Elevator Speech" version I came up with goes like this:

"I take your ideas, your words and your voice and make you look as good as I possibly can!"

And that's pretty much what it amounts to.

Whether you bring me scribbles on a napkin or a nearly perfect first draft, my job is to make you look as good as possible. And it's really our job, as we will work together to do this!

I realize that it's also why I enjoy working with authors from highly creative or spiritual fields, where the primary objective is to convey an idea and essence, rather than just go through an exercise in "mechanical accuracy."

Editing is not my Full Time Job!

I originally became an "Editor" somewhat accidentally.

What I mean by that is that I never set out with the ambition of becoming an editor, I just ended up doing the work because friends shared their writing, and I helped them "polish it up."

I happen to be really good at that.

It makes me wonder how many people actually set out to become editors, and how many just sort of stumble into it.

Although I have taken on occasional editing jobs for several decades, being an editor is not really my profession — in fact, I have many professions.

It is only thanks to the encouragement of several recent clients — along with the fact that a retail business my wife and I ran together closed down in June of 2019 — that I even call myself "Editor," these days.

Whereas I am happy to take on new projects that are interesting to me, particularly if I have a good rapport with the author, this is still not my full time job.

Which makes me ponder the whole issue of how we tend to do a better job at work we still find enjoyable and fulfilling... attributes that have a way of disappearing when we are under constant pressure to "perform" according to tight schedules and demands.

You Should TELL People You're Working Again!

Here I am, creating yet another blog to announce something I am doing.

Several friends and acquaintances — for whom I've done editing work — suggested that I "must" have a web site, so the world would know that I am available as an editor.

Editing is not really my profession... it's merely one-of-many-things I do as part of the greater task of scraping out an independent living without resorting to a corporate job.

All the editing gigs I have done over the past 15 years or so have been by referral, not because I was "out there," soliciting work.

"Wait... sounds like you are basically UN-selling yourself, yet you are building a web site and blog?"

Oh, why not!

Anyway... yes, I am available for proofreading and editing work of anything from articles to full-length book manuscripts. Although I have never formally held a full time job as a "Book Editor," I do have a lot of experience in helping people with their writing, and basically making their work shine.

Because this is not really my job, I'm somewhat selective in what I take on. In order for me to give you the best possible result, both the material and the author's personality/vision and I have to be a good match.

Have a poke around these pages and drop me an email if there's anything you'd like to have a chat about!

It Always Seems to Start with the Beginning!

Back when we were in school, most of us were taught that an essay (or almost any writing assignment) should have a beginning, a middle and an end.

I'll be the first to admit that it's a pretty good starting point. However, I have never been all that good at following convention.

In a slightly romantic sort of way, I can trace my roots as an editor to the day my dad told me that many publishers will send you a dollar if you can find and report a typo in one of their books.

Truthfully, I have no idea whether or not this was really true, but it set me down a path — as about a 10-year old — of always looking at the "patterns" of language and particularly written prose.

In case you are wondering, this happened around 1970...

As much as anything, I consider myself a bit of an "accidental" editor and proofreader.

I have always wanted to be been a writer... or so it seems. When I was about seven or eight, my mother bought me several blank exercise books and gave them to me with the hope that I would turn out to be artistic.

Instead of drawings, I soon filled the pages with words — fanciful tales of my teddy bear flying to the moon, and life inside a leaf.

Where many of my young peers wanted to grow up to become fire fighters or astronauts, my dream was to "tell stories!"

Life, however, had other plans for me.

You could say that my first "real" editing gig happened in my freshman year of college. After handing in my first essay assignment for freshman English, the professor pulled me aside and asked my why I was even in his class.

"Uhmmm... because it's required...?" I replied.

He then told me (I should add he was a published author with several books to his credit) that my essay was graduate school dissertation level, and it would be a complete waste of both our time for me to sit through the class. He then suggested that I shouldn't come to class anymore, and he'd give me an "A" if I'd be his teaching assistant and help him both grade papers and mentor struggling classmates during his office hours.

And that, in a nutshell, is how I started spending more time looking at other people's writing than my own.

As I write these words — with 2019 coming to a close — I can say that I have amassed  about forty years of experience in "grading" and "correcting" writing.